Chinese Nationalists Aren't Pawns of Beijing

No 'Greater China'

Published: October 28, 1996

To the Editor:

James R. Lilley (Op-Ed, Oct. 24) warns against Chinese xenophobia, but his article is itself xenophobic. He writes: ''There is a rallying cry for Chinese everywhere -- from Shanghai to San Francisco -- that . . . China's time has come. Join the cause of Greater China, they say, and it will rise in the world to the place it deserves.''

I am an American of Chinese descent. I have always considered America my country and resent Mr. Lilley's desire to make me part of ''Greater China.'' It is simply racist to assume that anyone who is ethnically Chinese necessarily endorses nationalist trends in the People's Republic. Are the people of Hong Kong anxious to become part of ''Greater China''? I think not.

Furthermore, by conflating Chinese-Americans with ''Chinese everywhere'' he perpetuates a racist stereotype that Americans of Asian descent are more aligned with Asian interests than with American ones.

This is exactly the type of thinking that led to the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. I would have hoped that we were beyond this. But Mr. Lilley's remarks show that we are not.